Public Option May Be Dead

It seems that Dem moderates may have won in the end.

In place of a government-run plan, originally designed as a way of forcing competition on private industry, officials said the Democrats had tentatively settled on a private insurance arrangement to be supervised by the federal agency that oversees the system through which lawmakers purchase coverage.

On the other hand this part is pretty odd:

Additionally, the tentative deal calls for Medicare to be opened to uninsured Americans beginning at age 55, a significant expansion of the large government health care program that currently serves the 65-and-over population.

So it seems that a program already headed for bankruptcy and is a huge drain on the federal budget will be expanded? Hopefully these new people on Medicare will pay in at a higher rate to balance out the cost of expanding the program.

Then when they become 65 they will be able to capture a so-called senior discount. In any case I think this health care monstrosity will actually have a chance of passing without the public option.